Back to School Savings
By julianne, August 9, 2011, Family & Kids, Shopping Tips
Whether your children are attending elementary school, high school, or college, school supplies are destined to be a large part of your budgeted expenses in August and September. From glue sticks to laptops, the lists of needed supplies can be overwhelming. There are great strategies, however, for saving money on those things your children will need for school.
Text Books
There are several ways to purchase needed textbooks for college classes. The traditional method of accessing books is to shop in the campus bookstore. A single textbook, bought new, can cost $200.00 or more, but used text books usually sit alongside the new ones, and can cost up to 85% less. When you are shopping for used books in a store, it is easy to assess the overall quality of the books and determine which book is best for you to buy.
There are a lot of resources online for new and used textbooks that can save time and money. Of course, shopping online allows you to avoid the requisite lines at the bookstore, but it can also turn you on to great deals. Amazon.com, for example, brokers sales of used books between sellers and buyers. You can save money on your books and later regain some of your investment by selling them to someone else.
Another way to save money on textbooks is to rent them rather than buying them. By renting used textbooks, you ultimately pay only about 5% of what you would if you were to buy a new book. There is no hassle in selling the book back at the end of the year, which generally brings in only pennies on a dollar anyway. Additionally, if you find that the book is not being used in the class or your instructor only teaches from it for part of the semester, you can return it early and save even more. For more information on renting college textbooks, check out College Book Renter and eCampus.
Electronics
There is no better time to buy laptop and desktop computers than in the months leading up to the beginning of the school year. This is a time when parents are looking for new computers for their high school and college students and retailers are all vying for the attention of consumers. Be sure to watch the flyers that arrive with your Sunday newspaper to compare sales and prices, but do not ignore online resources like ToshibaDirect.com and newegg.com. You will find that you can get a far better price on a refurbished computer than you can buying a new one. If it comes with a warranty, there is little risk in choosing this option.
You will not want to forget the accessories for the electronic equipment. Office supply stores and general department stores often offer discounts on computer discs, flash drives, and laptop cases as loss leaders to pull you in. Take advantage of these and you can save 50 to 75% on what you would normally pay for these perpetually necessary supplies.
Pens, Pencils, And Paper
No matter what level your student is, you will need the basics. These include pens, pencils, paper, folders, notebooks, and the like. Young children will likely need crayons, markers, colored, pencils, glue sticks, and scissors. If you have lists from your students’ schools or teachers, you can find all of this before school starts. If you do not have a list, it is wise to try to anticipate what they will need. Once school starts, all of the sale prices will disappear.
While it is most convenient to purchase everything you need in one trip, it is not the most economical way of doing things. Department stores like Target and Walmart will advertise particular items each week, like loose leaf paper or ball point pens, at ridiculously low prices. These are the loss leaders for the week to get you in the door. The discounted items will change the following week. If one of these stores is close enough to you to make it possible to go back each week, you can buy the sale items each week and save a great deal of money. Of course, your time and gas money must be considered in the equation as well.
Another option is to stock up on items by shopping online through retailers like DiscountSchoolSupply.com. Here you will find great prices but you must purchase your items in bulk. A great way to handle this is to pull a few friends together to split the costs of the products and divide up the packages when they arrive. The key is to spend the least amount of money per person per product possible.
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